Diana Wall, founding director of Colorado State University’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability, sits by one of the many microscopes in the Wall Soil Ecology Lab, where researchers study the diversity of life in the soil.

A Colorado State University scientist pioneering the study of microscopic underground organisms is preparing to stage a flood in Antarctica to simulate climate change — and determine the fertility of newly exposed soil.

First, Diana Wall has some talking to do in Washington, D.C. She’s being awarded the Tyler Prize — the premier international award for environmental science.

It honors exceptional foresight and dedication and comes with a $200,000 cash prize and a gold medal.

“I never would have dreamed that soil, or soil animals, ever would have been recognized with this type of award,” Wall said in an interview.

“Given the uncertainty of our overall research funds, this is a real welcome add-on,” Wall said. “It’s certainly going to help me with my research. It is a huge validation — not only a recognition of soil life and the work in Antarctica but a recognition that many different disciplines can come together to work on this.”

CSU president Tony Frank lauded Wall as “an inspiration to our students and a wonderful colleague.”

Wall’s research “tells an incredible story of how our world is changing — and she’s helped us better understand the role we play in developing a sustainable future,” Frank said.

Wall’s latest experiment in Antarctica — she has worked there for 24 seasons — involves flooding frozen tundra with water so that her team can study what happens with the melting that climate models anticipate. The hypothesis: Algae will emerge on top of Antarctic soil.

“Climate-change melting is going to mean sea-level rise. That’s why people are concerned at both poles,” Wall said.

“Antarctica controls ocean currents. So if we start changing the surface down there — we start having more brown, more ice melting, more soil exposed — that changes the amount of sun that is absorbed,” she said. “This is going to influence, globally, the type of climate we have.”

Geopolitical maneuvering has begun as nations beef up their research presence at the poles with an eye toward mining oil, gas and other minerals. As glaciers shrink, more soil is likely to open up. Yet the fertility of that soil is uncertain.

Bruce Finley covers environment issues, the land air and water struggles shaping Colorado and the West. Finley grew up in Colorado, graduated from Stanford, then earned masters degrees in international relations as a Fulbright scholar in Britain and in journalism at Northwestern. He is also a lawyer and previously handled international news with on-site reporting in 40 countries.

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